E-business, need suggestion

[aspiringWomen_2008]

Hi Guys, I am new to this forum, I m here to learn the tips and trick of the e-business, and share among ourselves..
here is my question:
I am planning to start a service oriented e-business at city level, tell me how risky it will be to jump in that area where we have some other business running in the same field.

Waiting for your sincere advice
Cheers'
:)

[Steve2507]

Hi,

Give us some more info and we may be able to help. "Service orientated" could be anything - washing cars, delivering sandwiches, telephone answering, secretarial etc.

[IridiumCorp]

Yes more info please.

[aspiringWomen_2008]

Ok, this business would be something online food delivery, we will provide just the information about the various food points in the perticular area and if somebody wants he can order online food on it :)

Another issue from where we can generate the revenue from it.. except ads.

[obscure]

Another issue from where we can generate the revenue from it.. except ads. It would seem that if you haven't come up with a way to actually make money then it isn't really a business idea.

Sure you could put ads but won't earn anything unless you get a lot of traffic (see below). You could get the various restaurants to agree to some form of finders fee (requires work to set up all the relationships). Your also going to have to get it set up so that orders get from your site to the restaurants who may all have different/non-existent online ordering services.

However, the big issue is marketing costs - no one will order from you unless they know your site exists. Not only will you need some good PR at launch but (as this is a market that anyone can get into) you will need a large marketing budget to grab market share and hold it. Look at the amount of advertising that similar services like ocado.com do. Gonna be pricey.

[aspiringWomen_2008]

Hey Obscure,
Thanks for your kind reply, I am totally agree from you that good PR & effective marketing is required to turn the traffic toward the site.
but first thing first Will it be safe to jump in this area where there is already one competitor? how easy it will be to hold the place in the market that is not niche and can you pls. suggest some good sites and if possible share some sucessful business/revenue model for e-business specially "online Food delivery" if you have (even link will do). and if possible guide me how to proceed further...

Thanks n Cheers'
:)

[boho]

Personally I can't see the point of ordering food from any restaurant online from a 3rd party site I would go direct, that way I know my order is placed and the restaurant definitely has my money. It doesn't strike me as a very workable business idea, or particularly profit generating?

Locally I had a very good free resource that used to list all of the local take away menus, not to order from but to save people trying to find the menu - now that was useful, but local restaurants wouldn't pay anything toward it like an ad fee or finders fee and eventually it just disappeared off the net.

[PrettyPaws]

Will it be safe to jump in this area where there is already one competitor?

I WISH there was only one competitor in my area!!!!!:eek:

[Steve2507]

I WISH there was only one competitor in my area!!!!!:eek:Tell me about it.

[jofstar]

There is no reason why there is any risk entering a market where you have one competitor. It depends on the market and whether you can differentiate yourself.

In some markets (especially new markets) it is actually benficial for there to be a few players to educate the consumer. However, you need to focus clearly on your pricing and why customers would use you over the competition.

[NikM]

You're never, or rather it would be amazing if you could, start afresh in an area with no competition. Rather than worrying about what everyone else might be doing, focus instead on what it is that will seperate you from the competetion. As a user, I would be using your site to order food I could order anyway, right? So why should I? Why should I give you my money rather than give it direct to Maccie D's or whoever? And why should they pay you for the service? It's not an e-commerce query really. You need a VERY clear idea of what you want to be offering to the end user before you jump in.

[aspiringWomen_2008]

Thanks to all of you who help me to come up on certain decision, can anybody clarify some of my doubts that I have before jump into the business meetings with investors?

1. What are the main things that I need to mention in Business presentations?
2. Do I have to tell them the complete plan and how business runs,
3. The surveys and our customer profiles and Proof it by some artifacts & researches.
4. Is it necessary to show them my profit margins also?
& do I need to show the look and feel of website also...

One more thing as I am a software engg., I don't have any business background, What are the things I required to justify them and make them interested to be a part of my E- business venture

In short I m looking for your opinion about the business meetings with investors/stakeholders

Thanks in anticipation

[aspiringWomen_2008]

Thanks to all of you who help me to come up on certain decision, and I will be going for Online food but here is the next step. Can anybody clarify some of my doubts that I must know before jumping into the business meetings with investors?

1. What are the main things that I need to mention in Business presentations?
2. Do I have to tell them the complete plan and how business runs,
3. The surveys and our customer profiles and to proof it by some artifacts & researches.
4. Is it necessary to show them my profit margins also?
& do I need to show the look and feel of website also...

One more thing as I am a software engg., I don't have any business background, so what are the things I required to justify the investors and make them interested to invest & be a part of my E- business venture.

In short I m looking for your opinion about the business meetings with investors/stakeholders

Thanks in anticipation

[MH1]

Just my thoughts when looking at an idea or person:

Any investor will want to know what is in it for them firstly, return on investment, your abilities, ie any experience in a similar venture or staff required to complete the business successfully. IE do you have them??

They would want/prefer to see a well laid out business plan to show you are thinking clearly and taking the business seriously.

Try to imagine someone you do not know asks you to bank roll their idea, what would you ask and expect?

If the business plan looks great, all the surveys and great product mean nothing if you have no faith in the person, and so forth. Know your figures and be clear what your target market and business will be, and as importantly where you want to see it go, and where you realistically believe it can reach over say three years.

A lot of people make the mistake of pitching what they think people want to hear, canny investors expect things to cost a bit to start, so do not say you need £20k year one investment if in reality you believe you need £30k.

Trust comes top of many investors priorities, try and pitch a slanted view and you will be dropped like a hot coal.

See Dragons Den for extra tuition and advice:D

Lastly something many people in your position should take the right way, if anybody is wary or unwilling to lend to you, there could be a very good reason. Take their comments on board and re-analyse your plans, they might be saving you a lot of heart ache in the long run, as well as themselves.

I'm sure more experienced guys can give some better advice.

[sirearl]

Unless you are going for a sandwich delivery business .My opinion is there is no market for an online food delivery business.Much easier to pick up the phone to your local takeaway.

Having said that if you have a unique service could work if you can get your site up the top of google for your geographical area.

Earl

[quikshop]

I disagree with some of the earlier posts, I think there is a market for a good online food ordering portal.

There have been SOO MANY attempts at this, and very quickly the information becomes out of date, menus and prices change frequently, fast food outlets close down and after 12 months those serving the Cambridge area in particular very quickly become useless.

The only way this type of business could ever work was if the food outlets only paid on receipt of an order through your web site and the process for them to upload their menus and price changes was very easy and very quick.

You might also need to offer an incentive to encourage them to spend time out of their usual daily routine to keep their online information up to date.

Best of luck with your business though, its about time someone got hold of this type of service and made it work :D